Alex Merced — Developer and technical writer sharing in-depth insights on data engineering, Apache Iceberg, data lakehouse architectures, Python tooling, and modern analytics platforms, with a strong focus on practical, hands-on learning.
418 articles from this blog
A history of JavaScript bundlers, from early script tags to modern tools like Webpack, Rollup, Parcel, Snowpack, and Vite, explaining the problems each solved.
A comprehensive guide to JavaScript functions, covering declarations, expressions, return values, and best practices for effective function design.
SolidJS is a frontend framework combining React's familiar syntax with Svelte's compilation approach for better performance and smaller bundles.
A guide to using Pipenv for managing Python virtual environments, focusing on deterministic dependency resolution with Pipfile.lock.
A guide covering two methods for deploying Node.js and Deno.js applications to the Heroku platform, including setup and configuration steps.
A comprehensive 2021 list of CSS frameworks and component libraries for major JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, Vue, and Svelte.
Introducing Merced-Express, a Node.js/Express framework with Rails-like CLI tools for generating models, controllers, and auth in a MongoDB project.
A tutorial on building and deploying a web API with Rust's Rocket framework, including routing, database integration, and deployment.
A concise reference guide covering the basics of Express.js and MongoDB/Mongoose, including setup, routing, middleware, and request/response handling.
Explains the differences between batch and streaming data processing, covering OLTP, OLAP, and ETL concepts for data engineers.
A tutorial on building and deploying a web API using the Dart programming language and the Google Shelf framework, from setup to deployment.
A tutorial on building and deploying a .NET 5 web API using VSCode, covering setup, development, and Docker deployment.
A tutorial on building and deploying a basic Java Spring API using VSCode, from project setup to deployment on Heroku.
A tutorial on building and deploying a basic API using the Go Buffalo framework, from initial setup to deployment on Heroku.
A tutorial on setting up an Express.js server, using templating engines (EJS, Mustache, Handlebars, Pug), and creating APIs for full-stack development.
A beginner's guide to building and deploying a web application with Laravel, covering setup, migrations, models, controllers, and Heroku deployment.
A guide to creating and managing Python virtual environments using the native venv module, with helpful bash functions.
A tutorial on building a full CRUD REST API using only Django's core features, without the Django Rest Framework.
A comprehensive 2021 chart categorizing backend web frameworks by language and architectural style (minimalist vs. robust).
A collection of practical JavaScript tips covering array/object copying, destructuring, optional chaining, nullish coalescing, and more.
